When the National Football League announced last week that it would allow spirits companies to run commercials during games on a trial basis for the first time in league history, it announced a long list of restrictions. Among them: a limit on the number of 30-second spots per game, including pre- and post-game coverage; no sponsorships; no targeting youth; no direct sales messaging; and no football themes. Additionally, every ad has to include a prominent social responsibility message and at least 20% of game-season ads have to focus exclusively on social responsibility, whether that’s language against underage drinking or drunk driving or preaching for saving the whales or conserving water.

But there’s one notable topic that the NFL didn’t address, and that’s women. As everyone knows, women have long been relegated to sexual-object status in sports advertising, namely in beer commercials, which began crowding sports broadcasts -- baseball, originally -- after the 1947 World Series. Sports advertising, beer and chauvinism is so intertwined that it’s blamed for helping to establish the American concept of beer as a man’s drink. Just two years ago, a public outcry forced Bud Light (the official beer sponsor of the NFL) to apologize and yank a message it had plastered on bottles: “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.” Part of its #Up for Whatever campaign that launched during the 2015 Super Bowl, critics fumed that the slogan promoted date rape.

Point being, beer advertising has denigrated women practically forever, and while liquor companies can’t directly pitch their product or associate it with the sport they’re financially supporting, they’re free to beam whatever gender messages they want. At first, this seemed like cause for concern. But somewhat surprisingly, instead of worrying that spirits companies might double down on beer’s sexual stereotyping, two influential women who study these trends are viewing the new advertising opportunity as a positive opportunity for women, not to mention an ideal time for advertisers and the NFL to pick up much more of the sought-after female market.

“Women are an enormous growth market for whiskey and other companies wondering, ‘How can we be a drink of choice for women?’” agrees Kat Gordon, founder of The 3% Movement, a campaign to increase the number of female creative directors from their current 11% of the total (formerly 3%).

These women say that viewers can look for positive signs in commercials’ taglines; story lines; scripts; takeaway messages; and the level of active participation by women. Questions to ask include: Are the women speaking? Is the tone respectful? Are women portrayed as empowered?

“It was fine to show a frat party making fun of girls five or eight years ago,” he told the paper. “But it’s ineffective and potentially damaging to do today.”

Gordon notes that thanks to shared ride services, it’s far safer to drink during football games and hence an opportune time to introduce hard liquor.

“Uber and Lyft have really changed the nature of partying,” she says. “It’s an interesting time to set the bar toward a more social and convivial environment.”

If it’s past time for advertisers to get hip to changing societal standards, it’s time for the NFL to catch up, too. Women comprise more than half of Super Bowl viewers, and now that the NFL has named Dawn Hudson as chief marketing officer, the league itself has a chance to counteract decades of bad press by choosing spokespeople, charities and attitudes that denounce domestic abuse, sexual harassment and unfair hiring and wage practices while supporting women’s health initiatives, parental leave and the like. Perhaps the NFL could embark on its own pro-women social responsibility campaign.

“If football is going to be held up as the mecca of American sports, let the NFL demonstrate leadership,” Casey says.

According to press reports, the NFL is running the season-long trial to accept modern sensibilities that “alcohol is alcohol” as the Distilled Spirits Council says in a statement, meaning that liquor doesn’t necessarily threaten the social fabric any more than does beer or wine. Plus, other professional leagues have allowed broadcasters to run liquor ads for a decade and individual NFL teams are free to partner with spirits companies.

“Football is a hyper-masculine sport and I’m guessing they’re connoting it would be therefore irresponsible to promote gambling and sex. I think that’s an enormous oversimplification of how society and adult pleasures work,” says Gordon.

The change may force beer companies to think even more deeply about how to attract drinkers – any drinkers – through sports advertising. Bud Light has dedicated $1.4 billion to sponsor the NFL from 2105 through 2022 at a time when beer’s U.S. market share dropped (for the seventh straight year) to 47% as liquor sales continue to set records at $25.2 billion last year.

An Anheuser-Busch InBev company spokesperson emailed: “The NFL recently informed us of their decision. We plan to meet with the league to discuss the new policy in more detail.” It’s a tough time to be an ad agency with big beer as a client.

So does this mean TV viewers should expect commercials that liken a piece of fruit to the curve of a feminine body to vanish? Perhaps. But Casey thinks it will be a matter of moving the ball, yard-by-yard, rather than scoring a touchdown in one or two plays.

“I don’t think we’re going to get there right now but over time it will happen,” she says. “Fingers crossed.”

The NFL didn't respond to a request for comment.

I’m a freelancer who primarily covers lifestyle trends with a focus on craft beer, alcohol, culinary tourism and sustainability. My writing has been published in Food + Wine, USA Today, US Airways, Eater, Thrillist, Philadelphia magazine, New Jersey Monthly and numerous nati...